This paper presents a positive theory of centralization of political decisions in an international union. My central claim is that lobbies play a role in determining the assignment of competencies to the union because their power of influence can increase or decrease under centralization. I show...

To date, there has been little investigation of the impact of seasonal adjustment on the detection of business cycle expansion and recession regimes. We study this question both analytically and through Monte Carlo simulations. Analytically, we view the occurrence of a single business cycle...

Ivan Gasparovic, the controversial former president of parliament, has won the presidential election in Slovakia. In the final runoff ballot on 17 April 2004, he defeated his former political associate and former prime minister, Vladimir Meciar. Both of these politicians had been largely...

Some committees convene behind closed doors while others publicly discuss issues and make their decisions. This paper studies the role of open and closed committee decision making in presence of external influence. We show that restricting the information of interest groups may reduce the bias...

Climate change is already happening. Regardless of international progress to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, the climate system will continue to adjust for the next few decades to past and present emissions. This will bring unavoidable impacts on natural and...

This study compiles and summarizes the existing knowledge about observed and projected impacts of climate change on forests in Europe and reviews options for forests and forestry to adapt to climate change. It has been commissioned by the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development...

The FAO report "Livestock long shadow: environmental issues and options" (2006) claims that livestock production is a major contributor to the world's environmental problems, contributing about 18% to global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, although highly variable across the world....

This report presents the final results of the study named AVEMAC (Assessing Agriculture Vulnerabilities for the design of Effective Measures for Adaptation to Climate Change). This study has been realized in collaboration of the Actions AGRI4CAST, GeoCAP, AGRI0ENV, and AGRITRADE of the Institute...